Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services is reporting that school boards across the state are waiting for the state Supreme Court to decide whether the legislature is obeying a voter approved mandate:

Attorneys for school boards throughout the state and some individual districts contend lawmakers are ignoring what voters wanted when they approved a permanent six-tenths of a cent hike in state sales taxes in 2000. That specifically includes increasing the basic state aid paid to school by the amount of inflation.

But lawmakers, relying on a much narrower interpretation of that law, are increasingly only the transportation component of that aid.

Hanging in the balance is around $55 million. And the question of who wins the lawsuit will come down to what the court say the word “or” means.

The justices will decide in September whether to even consider the issue.

Read the whole article here.